Rock Island daily Argus., 1887-07-23
CHAPTER XXVI.
FRANK MuLLER's FAMILIAR.

FRANK MULLER's FAMILIAR.
The study of the conflicting elements that
go to make up character like Frank Muller's
however fascinating it might prove, is not one
that can be attempted in detail here Such
character in its developed form is fortunately
practically impossible in highly civilized
country. The dead weight of the law would
crush it back to the level Of the human nass
around it But those who have lived i'll the
wild places of the earth will be acquainted
with its prototypes, more especially in those
places where handful of a superior race rules
over the dense thousands of an inferior Soil
tudes are favorable to the production of
strongly marked individuaities The COM
panionship of highly developed men, on the
contrary whittles individualities away, the
difference between their growth being the
difference between the growth of tree on
plain and a tree in the forest On the plain
the tree takes the innate bent of its nature
1t springs in majesty toward the skies; it
spreads itself around or it slantS along the
earth just as nature intended that it should,
and in accordance with the power of the
providential breath that bends it. In the
forest it is different There the tree grows
toward the light wherever the light may be.
Forced to modify its natural habit in obedi-
ence to the pressure of circumstances over
which it has no control, it takes such form
and height as its neighbors will allow to it,
all its energies being directed to the preserva-
ton of life, i'll any shape and at any sacrifice
Thus it is with us all Left to ourselves. or
surrounded only by the scrub of humanity,
we become outwardly that which the spirit
within would fashion us to, but placed among
our fellows, shackled by custom, restrained
by law, pruned and bent by the force of pub
lie opinion. we grow as like one to another as
the fruit bushes on a garden wall The sharp
angle, of our characters are fretted away by
the friction of the crowd, and we lecome
round and polished, and specifically, at any
rate, identical We no longer resemble
solitary bowider on plain, but are as stone
built into the great edIfice of civilized society.
The place Of man like Frank Muller is at
the junction of the waters of civilization and
barbarisn Too civilized to possess those
savage virtues which, such as they are repre-
sent the quantum of innate good nature has
thought fit to allow i'll the mixture man, and
too barharous to be subject to the tenderer
restraints of cultivated society, be Is at once
strong in the strength of both and weak In
their weaknesses. Animated by the spirit Of
baIbarism. superstition and almost entirely
destitute of the spirit of civilization mercy,
he stands on the edge of both and an atfront
TO both as terrific a moral spectacle as the
world can afford
Had be been a little more civilized, with
his power of evil trained by education and
cynical reflection to defy the attacks of those
spasns of unreasoning spiritual terror and
understandable passion that have their natural
dwelling place in the raw, strong mind Of
uncultivated man, Frank Muller might have
broken upon the world as Napoleon. Had
he been little more savage, little further
removed from the unconscious but present
influence of a progressive race, he might have
ground his fellows down and ruthlessly
destroyed them in the madness of his rage
and lust. like an Attila or T'Chaka. As it
was, be was buffeted between two forces he
did not realize, even when they swayed him,
and thus at every step i'll his path toward a
supremacy of evil an unseen power made
stumbling blocks of weaknesses which, if that
path had been laid along a little higher or a
little lower level in the scale of circumstance.
would themselves have been deadly weapons
of overmastering force.
See him, as with his dark heart filled up
with fears, he thunders along from the scene
! of midnight death and murder his brain had
| not feared to plan and his hand to execute.
| Onward his black horse strides, Companloned
| by the storm, like dark thought travelling
on the wings of Night He does not believe
in any God, and yet the terrible fears that
spring up in his soul, born fungus like from
dew of blood, take shape and form, and
seem to cry aloud, "We are the messengers of
| the avenging God" He glances up. High
| on the black bosom of the storm the finger
| of the lightning is writing that awful name,
and again and again the voice of the thunder
reads it out aloud in spirit shaking accents.
| He shuts his dazed eyes, and even the falling
| rhythm of his horses hoofs beat out There is
| God there is a God" from the silent earth
on which they strike.
And so on through the tempest and the
night, flying from that which no man can
| leave behind
1t was near midnight when Frank Muller
| drew rein at a wretched mud hut perched by
| itself on the banks of the Vaal, and tianked
on its rear by an equally miserable shed The
place was as silent as the grave; not even q
| dog barked.
"If that beast of Kaffir is not here" he
said aloud, Il will have him flogged to death
Hendrix Hendrix
| As he called, form rose up at his very
feet. causing the weary horse to start back 81
violently that he almost threw his rider to th,
ground.
"What in the name Of the devil are youl
almost shrieked Frank Muller, whose nerves
| indeed were III no condition to stand fresl
| shocks
at is me, baas," said the form, at the sam'
time throwing off gray blanket in which i
was enveloped, and revealing the villainou
countenance of the one eyed witch doctor win
had taken the letter to Bessie, and who has
for years been MulIers body servant, and fol
lowed him about like dog.
"Curse you, you dog What do you meal
by hiding up like that? 1t is one of your IN
fernal tricks; be careful"-tapping his pisto
case-"or shall one day put an end to yol
and your witcbcraft eogether."
II am very sorry baas," +" said the man. in
whine, "but half an hour ago | heard yo
coming | don't know what is the matte
with the air tonight, but it sounded a
though twenty people were galloping afte
you. / could hear them all quite clear; frs
the big black horse, and then all those VIII
came after, just as though they were huntin
you; and so 1 came out and lay down to Ii:
ten, and it was not till you were quite clos
that one by one the others stopped. PerhaI
it was the devils who galloped."
@Curse you, stop that wizards talk" sal
Muller, his teeth chattering with fear an
agitation "Take the horse and clean an
feed him well; he has galloped far, and W
start at dawn. Stop tell me, where are th
lights and the brandy. If you have drum
the brandy will fog you."
"They are on the shelf on the left as 70
go in, baas, and there is flesh there, too, an
bread"
Muller swung himself from the saddle an
entered the hut, pushing open the cranl,
broken hinged door with kick. He fouu
the box of Taudsticl,or matches, and, aft,
one or two false shois-tluc chiefly to his slal
! ing hand-succceded i'll getting fire and ligh
ing coarse dip such as the Beers make OF
| | of mutton fat Near the candle was bott